Woman Caught On Video Attacking Black Teen Snaps At Gayle King In Unhinged Interview

The “CBS This Morning” host showed impressive patience with Miya Ponsetto, the "Soho Karen" who falsely accused a 14-year-old of stealing her phone.
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Miya Ponsetto , the 22-year-old woman who has already earned herself the moniker “SoHo Karen,” had an incredibly tense interview with CBS’s Gayle King, just hours before her 4:30 p.m. arrest in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Ponsetto was caught on camera falsely accusing 14-year-old Keyon Harrold Jr. of stealing her phone in the lobby of New York City’s Arlo Soho Hotel on Dec. 26. In the viral video, she appears to attack the teenage boy, running after and tackling him as he tries to exit the hotel.

Jazz musician Keyon Harrold, the teen’s father who shot footage of the encounter, has accused Ponsetto of racial profiling. Harrold also said that her missing phone was left in an Uber and later returned by the driver.

In her interview with King, which aired Friday, Ponsetto admitted to the “CBS This Morning” host that she should have approached the situation differently, “maybe not yelled at him like that and made him feel, you know, maybe some sort of inferior way, making him feel as if I was, like, hurting his feelings.”

Ponsetto — who chose to wear a baseball cap emblazoned with the word “Daddy” for the interview — added, “I consider myself to be super sweet. I really never, ever meant for it to, like, hurt him or his father, either.”

Yet when King pressed her about the context of her actions, Ponsetto responded, “How is one girl accusing a guy about a phone a crime? Where’s the context in that? What is the deeper story here?”

King pointed out that Ponsetto appeared to attack the teen and that she is “old enough to know better.” Ponsetto snapped back, interrupting King, holding up her palm and saying, “All right, Gayle. Enough.”

When video of the interview was posted on Twitter, many users were troubled by Ponsetto’s attitude and in awe of King’s composure.

Many also had a few choice words about Ponsetto’s accessory.

According to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office — which coordinated with the New York City Police Department to arrest Ponsetto on a fugitive warrant — an attempt was made to pick her up in a traffic stop near her home in Piru, California, on Thursday.

But Ponsetto wouldn’t stop her vehicle until she pulled up to her house, and even then refused to get out of the car. She tried to slam a car door on one of the deputies and had to be physically removed from her vehicle, a Ventura County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told NBC News.

NBC noted that it was not immediately clear what charges Ponsetto faces. The sheriff’s office also told HuffPost that there were no updates on the charges and that she will remain in local custody without bail while awaiting extradition to New York.

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